Riddler's Master Plan
by C.Ashford
Summary: For months Edward Nygma has been hatching a plan to finally destroy the treacherous Dark Knight, but not even the self-proclaimed smartest man alive can execute the perfect scheme. First in a series of villainous one-shots, R&R if you like it, have advice or to tell me which villain you want to see next!


_This...this is spectacular!_

Riddler took a step back and admired his latest work; his latest brilliant trap for the Batman.

 _This time it has to work...this time I've perfected it to a tee._

He walked around, studying every inch of his marvellous contraption once again to make sure he was correct.

 _Weight triggered panels specifically calibrated to his exact specifications...automatically locking doors to stop him from turning back...and to finish off, the six inch thick steel plates that will fall from the ceiling and rise from the floor; it's perfect!_

Riddler clapped his hands together in demonic glee, "This time I'm going to win! Now where's that bait..."

He exited through the door to his contraption to the van that was parked out front. He opened it with high anticipation, "Hello there little one!" the police officer in the back groggily awoke and looked around his surroundings, slowly realising his horrific fate. He attempted to scream, but almost began to cry when he noticed the tape covering his mouth. "Now, riddle me this; what's black, blue and red all over?" He raised his cane over his head, "The answer? You." He smiled maliciously as he struck the cop over the head, sending him back into unconsciousness.

 _All that's left to do do now...is grab the dark detective's attention..._

Riddler couldn't help but grin like the Joker while he was driving at full speed to his destination; the slightly distant entrance to the shipyard he was using as his place of work.

 _I just need to get far enough away so that I can execute my plan..._

He stopped abruptly and turned the van around, ready for the oncoming pursuit.

 _Cameras and sensors are set...and the signal has been sent to police airwaves._

He typed some final coding into his laptop so that the screen lit up with two displays, one of them showing the inside of his trap, so he could watch as the caped crusader's bones became powder, and a sensor which enabled him to see when said Batman was close. He looked out through the wing mirror and was delighted to see the dark figure approaching only not in his car as anticipated.

 _Oh crap! I forgot about the motorcycle!_

Riddler slammed his foot on the pedal as hard as he could.

 _No matter. I will just have to be quick, I will have to forgoe seeing him blunder into my trap immediately._

He swerved and stopped outside the building, the motorcycle around a minute behind him. Riddler jumped out, taking the cop with him and bolted into his death trap. He ran across the room to a small alcove that would protect him from the oncoming steel plates.

 _Any second now..._

He almost laughed with excitement as they entered the room, until he looked closer and his heart and face fell in instantly.

 _No! This is not possible! How could this happen today of all days!_

"Don't look too sad Nygma." The charming voice of Nightwing called from across the now useless trap, "Don't tell me you were expecting someone else?"

Riddler's face contorted in anger, "God damn you!" He clicked off the end of his cane to reveal a failsafe gun in the tip, "You'll pay for this; boy blunder!"

Before he could get a chance to shoot Nightwing was already directly in front of him, and promptly pulled the cane away from him and snapped it across his knee, "Honestly Eddie...you thought this was gonna work?" He said as he pulled the now broken Nygma out of the alcove and handcuffed him, "I can see what you were trying to pull, but there are so many things that could've and did go wrong..."

"No!" He interrupted Nightwing, cutting him off abruptly, "My plan was foolproof! This was just an anomaly..."

"Really Eddie? Bats noticed last time you tangled with him that you were weighing him secretly, so I was one of so many ways he could have avoided the obvious pressure plate plan" he kept him in sight while he was waking up the unconscious cop, "he could have changed up his suit or his gadget line up to weigh less, he could've taken the jet to stop the chase from occurring in the first place, or, most easily, he could've just gotten someone else to do it. I was in the neighbourhood and I thought 'why not?'"

Riddler stared at him while he spoke, trying to interject at certain points before realising his mistakes.

 _He's...he's right...I was wrong...my master plan, my one way I thought I was gonna kill the bat, and it could've failed in so many ways..._

"All this hinges on one thing Nygma" he pushed the villain out of the room, followed by the disgruntled officer, "That you think you're smarter than Batman, well spoiler alert; you're not"

"And you wanna know the funniest thing about all this?"

Riddler was broken now, defeated mentally and physically, but he still looked up at the former Robin, "What?"

Nightwing smirked, " Where's the riddle in this?"

 _A riddle? Why of course it's...I mean obviously it's...oh._

Edward Nygma drew a blank. "I thought not" Nightwing almost laughed at the pathetic villain, before tossing him in the van that he used in what he thought to be his orchestral plan, and leading the cop as the driver back to the GCPD on his motorcycle.

Riddler was emotionless; thinking, harder than ever before.

 _No riddle, there was no riddle, why was there no riddle?_

"Hey Riddler! How did that 'master plan work out for ya?" Black Mask, or Roman Sionis, mocked him from his glass cell.

"Oh yes do tell" Pamela Isley, otherwise known as Poison Ivy jeered at the fallen Nygma.

"I'm guessing it didn't turn out as planned?" asked Jonathan Crane, aka Scarecrow, and Edward's cellmate at Blackgate penitentiary.

His fellow intellectual inmate's voice snapped him out of his trance, "No...not this time Doctor. I...I forgot to add a riddle"

Crane's eyes grew wide with surprise, "Really? But that's what you do best!"

"I know" Edward confessed with his head in his hands, "I was too caught up in setting a trap for the Bat that I failed miserably in every respect"

"Well that's where you went wrong" Crane put down his book, bookmarking the chapter on 'How Chemicals Effect the Mind' and put a hand on Edward's shoulder, "the reason that we do what we do isn't specifically to take down the Batman or any of his ghastly family, leave that crap to Hush or Bane. No, we have other focuses, the Bat is merely a side project; don't let him become more than that, or you fear losing what it was that made you unique to begin with; understand?"

 _Yes...yes! That's it! I shouldn't focus on trying to kill a man in a black jumpsuit, I should focus on what I do best..._

 _I shouldn't focus on destroying the Bat, I should focus on the riddles that confound him!_

He punched the air victoriously, "Crane! Where do we keep the emergency kit?"

"Leaving already? You only just arrived..." Crane smirked, "have fun, I think I'll get back to my reading if you don't reached under the bed and pulled open a trap door, which led right underneath the villain's storage closet, that he and Edward had been finished at the prison's last riot a a few weeks ago.

Riddler gleamed triumphantly as he stepped out into the pouring rain,"Riddle me this Gotham!" He shouted to the heavens, "What's smart, green, and ready to go back to basics?!" He thrust the two halves of his cane into the air, "I'll give you a hint; he's back in business!"


End file.
